I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cyclically repetitive motion generating mechanisms and, in particular, to a mechanism which will generate a rotary output for driving a gear rack in a prescribed motion.
II. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,089,228, 4,020,708 and 4,269,076 are each related to the present disclosure and are incorporated herein by reference. As indicated in the aforementioned patents, numerous apparatuses and devices have been utilized to provide a desired motion of an output member along a prescribed path, such as a linear indexing mechanism of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,292, which is designed to achieve cycloidal motion of an output member along a linear path. Other mechanisms disclosed in the prior art generally achieve such cyclically repetitive motion by utilizing complicated cam grooves and followers to accomplish predetermined acceleration, deceleration, dwell and reversing characteristics of the output member. No system, to the knowledge of the inventor, provides a simple means for accomplishing the predetermined, hereinafter described characteristics for a gear and rack output arrangement.